By A Name I Know Not How to Tell You Who I Am

I am reading the galleys for my next book, THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS, which (finally) has a firm release date of December 30, 2008. It’s been a long time arriving in stores—the book was finished over a year ago, but everyone involved (agent, editor, publisher, self) feel that is it a special, magical book, and we wanted to make sure it had the attention and launch it deserves. That meant a number of changes (publisher, imprint, editor) and waiting for the right moment to bring it out. It will be a part of the Bantam Discovery program, which is a line devoted to showcasing writers who haven’t yet been noticed in a big way. Some are debut authors, such as Sarah Addison Allen (the utterly wonderful Garden Spells). Others have been published awhile, but haven’t yet attracted the audience they deserve, as with Jonathan Tropper, a man who writes beautiful stuff about life and relationships.

The Lost Recipe for Happiness will be the January book, and it will be released under a new name, Barbara O’Neal. There was a lot of discussion over whether to do this—the book has a strong thread of magic realism, but that wouldn’t throw my core readers all that much. Magic realism has appeared in my work many times—in the roses and spells of the grandmother in A Piece of Heaven; in the ghost of Lucille in Goddess of Kitchen Avenue, in the bond between twins in Lady Luck’s Map of Vegas. Magic realism has been a thread in my work from the earliest days as a category romance writer—legend meeting love, hints of the magic of an old woman’s story, reincarnation, ghosts, saints All sorts of things. Lost Recipe is just takes that thread and moves it forward one (giant) step.

There were a couple of good reasons to stick with the Barbara Samuel name, too. I’ve won awards. A lot of them, honestly. And I’ve been very positively reviewed, for the most part, in publications across the country. Within Romance Writers of America, I have a good reputation, and I have gained visibility as a teacher.

And yet, all the way through the writing of Lost Recipe, the possibility of publishing it under a new name stuck with me. Maybe my thoughts will help some of you decide if/where/when to take a pseudonym.

As a writer, I’ve always been quite restless, moving between non-fiction, articles, essays, and straight journalism to category romances set in the west, to dark, sweeping medieval romances to “straight” women’s fiction.

Now, here I must admit to a rather checkered name life. I’m a child of the seventies, and it shows in my erratic youth, so I must confess to a brief marriage to a beautiful young man. We were too young and drove each other crazy, but I enrolled in college as Barbara Larsen, so as a young journalist, that was the name I published under.

When I began to sell romances, Harlequin/Silhouette still required all writers to take a pseudonym, and I chose Ruth Wind. (At the time, I am ashamed to say, there was still an archaic idea that one should hide the fact that we wrote category romances at all, preserving our real names for the “real” work that would surely come later.) A few years later, I expanded into historical romance. By then, I was happily remarried and had a couple of little boys and I gladly published those books as Barbara Samuel. My “real” name. I considered publishing everything Ruth Wind, but the books were so very different that I realized that they would appeal to quite different sorts of readers. (An assumption that proved true, by the way. Rarely did my readers cross over between category and historical romances.) Publishing the historicals under a new name would help brand them more clearly. If there were readers who loved both kinds of romances, they would easily be able to find out what other names I used.

When I sold my first single title novels, to Harper Collins, it began to get a little tricky. The first book, In the Midnight Rain, is an atmospheric tale of music and redemption and love, and it seemed obvious that it was an extension of the work I was doing as Ruth Wind, so that’s where it was published.

When I wrote the second book (which became No Place Like Home), there was a huge amount of support to take it into hardcover. The feeling was that everyone would be more comfortable with me writing under my “real” name. With some reservations—Ruth Wind had begun to develop a fair amount of name recognition—I agreed. It’s an old-fashioned sounding name, after all, and as I undertook the challenge of bigger books, I didn’t really have time to write historicals or category romance.

(That didn’t last all that long, honestly. I’m a fast writer, a restless writer, and no matter how many slings and arrows are flung at the category romance, I absolutely love to write it sometimes, and I found myself sliding one in now and then, reviving Ruth Wind to play with things Barbara Samuel might not be allowed to do. I still published some historical/paranormal novellas as Samuel, and that was fine with everyone. )

But fast forward seven years. I’ve been divorced for more than five years and my main work is headed into territory that’s quite a bit different from the tales of young love where I began. Some aspects of the work are very dark, and there’s that emerging magic realism. Some romance readers, following me from my roots, are furious or desperately unhappy about books that might portray a heroine who lost a child because she was a drunk, or a husband who is living with another woman through 90% of the book.

I wrote The Lost Recipe in its entirety because I knew it was taking me into a new place. Everyone agreed. We also agreed that Barbara Samuel, as a brand name, was quite muddied. It was muddied from my end because it was a name from a marriage I’d outgrown, and muddied from a professional aspect because I was on the computers and databases as writing historical romances, paranormal novellas, and women’s fiction. (Paranormal is not the same thing as magic realism, and that’s a muddy point right there.) It is also a sad truth that the mainstream review world still views anyone with romance roots as highly suspicious.

With The Lost Recipe For Happiness, the time seemed right to offer a new brand. To that end, I chose to take a new name, O’Neal, which is a family name I embrace with deep pride—my beloved grandmother’s name, my mother’s name, my uncle’s name. As a child, it was the name I always said I would take for my writing, and there is a deep power in that, too.

This move gives me a lot more freedom. Barbara Samuel can play with urban fantasy and dragons or even historical romance. Ruth can handle straight romances. And we all live happily as one writer with many guises, leaving readers free to make their choice of brand, too.

When you discover an author has a pseudonym, do you seek out the other names? Are you comfortable with the practice of multiple names? Do you plan to write under a pseudonym?

Barbara O'Neal has written a number of highly acclaimed novels, including 2012 RITA winner, How To Bake A Perfect Life, which landed her in the RWA Hall of Fame and was a Target Club Pick. She is a highly respected teacher who also publishes material for writers at Patreon.com/barbaraoneal.
She is at work on her next novel to be published by Lake Union in July.
A complete backlist is available here.

Comments

I am writing under a pseudonym right now. I do this because my actual name is not American, if there is such a thing, and it doesn’t fit the genre I’m writing… historical romance with paranormal elements. If I were to switch to a different genre, I would probably create a new pseudonym, too.

It helps that my real name encourages nicknames; I’ve been used to people calling me by different names all my life. Having a pseudonym comes naturally to me, whereas other people think it’s odd that I willingly created a pseudonym before anyone asked me to.

If I really liked an author, I would probably look for their pseudonym’s work. But to be honest, I never even thought about it before.

Doesn’t seem to hurt Nora Roberts. I think readers are more savvy about that kind of thing now. But it’s lovely that you have a choice, and that each of your names has a strong following. I suspect that your core readers will find your Barbara O’Neal books just as delightful.

Yes, I would seek out a fave author’s other books if they wrote under more than one name. I’m truly looking forward to reading The Lost Recipe for Happiness, Barbara, and hearing it contains magic realism only makes it more appealing!

Whether or not to use a pseudo depends on what you’re writing and if you want to be perceived differently from other things you’ve written.

It’s an author branding consideration more than anything else.

Donald Westlake also writes under Richard Stark. The Stark pseudo is for his Parker character series, while Westlake is for his more mainstream “one-off” novels.

Though to me, branding is better done through the creation of a media franchise. Traditionally in publishing the author becomes the franchise (see Tom Clancy). To me this is usually an indicator of writing that sells but is NOT necessarily indicative of a well branded media franchise — like Harry Potter, for example.

Or in non-fiction, the Dummies or Idiot’s Guide books. The franchise is greater than the author.

Like you, I’ve had three last names, so I find myself not too attached to any of them. My middle name, on the other hand, has been mine my whole life and it’s never going to change, so I write using my first and middle name. I always loved it, in spite of its strange origin–my mom saw it on a used car lot sign–and no matter what else changes in my life, it stays the same.

It also gives me a little privacy.

Only problem is, someone already owns the web domain! Hoping I can sweet talk her into giving it up one day.

Barbara, this is a fascinating post that I read with a great deal of interest. My use of a pseudonym was rather involuntary, so I started out with very ambivalent feelings towards it, even though I was very firm when I chose it, that it should be my own name. Now, I see it as potentially a good thing a) because it’s distinctive and b) because it gives me options should I get the opportunity to move into adult fiction.

And that is a STUNNING cover. I’m so glad this one’s finally coming out. I remember following your journey as you wrote it.